#I found out I have ADHD yahoo! at least I know what it was all that time and can make a smart face

[fareehaandspaniards]

БОБЁР!!!!!!

[therealmnemo]

i originally wanted to drag festivus into this whole thing by titling it ‘airing of the grievances.’ but that would first off, skew it negatively and, secondly, also be aimed at grievances at myself. the whole purpose of this is kind of talking about where i feel i am with fandom in general compared to where i started, and how long i plan to stick around in it. 

anyways, without trying to seem like an overdramatic yahoo:

this fandom saved my life.

i’m in a place that i can say that. honestly and without hesitation. there were things that i have gotten involved in... band-aids that held me together through depression, untreated adhd, and a relationship failing in slow-motion. moves, changes and failures in my career and my education. and then i decided, you know what i really loved once-upon-a-time? fanfiction. in high school i loved reading hp fanfiction and playing on hp rp boards. why don’t i try it with dragon age? 

looking for cullen x inquisitor fics is where i started. after finally finishing da2? i dove into fenhawke. i devoured the tag. mostly f!hawke, but once i tore through that, m!hawke too. one of the people in that fandom started a skype chat for fenhawke and things just kept getting better! we started a blog! all about fenhawke! it was so much fun to find content, to make content, to talk to a small community of people!

and then that went to shit. i always connected with anders. and it seemed like i kept coming across people in that side of the fandom that absolutely hated him. there was a lot of bitter infighting about fenris as a character and getting mad at other fans for headcanons they held. i wanted positivity, i wanted to love both these characters. i started @teamblueandangry , i left that fenhawke site and group behind. i only talk with a few of them now. 

but wow, so much happened that first year with tbaa! a few appreciation weeks, and glow bang. i met so many people, made so many awesome mutuals! people that were just about to give up on fandom stuck around! i dove into the tags to find people just toeing in and trying to bring them into the fold before the assholes ruined their fandom experience.  i’ve met so many amazing people and made so many friends. 

finding this community kept me from driving my car into a tree. and i am thankful for that every fucking day. 

and then 2017 happened. 

most notably, anti-anders month happened. and everything that i had tried to preach about positivity wise went to shit.. for me. i couldn’t go into the anders tag. i had a hard time feeling motivated. and then two months later i left my husband. i also found out a small contingent of the fenris fandom had blocked me and others.. simply for liking anders. 

my best and worst thing i’ve ever done in fandom also happened.. i started a discord server. best? finally a place for several people at once to talk about things and ideas and to enable a creative community! my worst in that i probably alienated people that used to be my friends. and my own anxiety kept me from just being a fucking adult and talking to people to see if it was something i did or could even help with. my own irl issues and changes, along with my extended absences, couple with things that a few people did that while i’m sure there was no ill intent, hurt me very deeply and i’ve probably ruined those friendships out of my insecurities more than anything. 

once i got settled in with my new place, new job, just... everything irl falling back into place again.. i felt confident to truly engage in fandom again. at least in banter, and helping others with ideas... my own creativity is still stuck, but i’m working on it. sitting and thinking on all of my failures isn’t helping things.

i’ve failed a person that i missed on a secret santa two years ago

i’ve failed in being the only one that didn’t write my gift for tbaa’s one year celebration

i’ve failed in that i’ve not been able to fix my laptop nor finish getting my sound production so my commissioned podfics lay unfinished

i’ve failed in the discord channels i’ve created, wanted to make a place where there’s consistent talk about writing and creating 

i’ve failed in keeping up with the queue and events for tbaa

i’ve failed in being a good friend to many mutuals

but all in all, fandom for me has far more pros than cons. and once i’m able to forgive myself for past failures, and hopefully rectify most of them, i’ll be able to get past that last creative barrier. i really want that same feeling that kept me wanting to be alive. 

if i’ve not been the best mutual/friend, from the bottom of my heart, i’m sorry. 

i don’t plan on going anywhere, but i really hope 2018 coming means that all of this will be behind me on a chapter that i can definitively move on from and close it for good. 

this fandom kept me alive, and i thank you all for that... every damn day.

[topicprinter]

NOTE: I will look over literally anybody's funnel here online and provide you feedback - FREESo here's some quick and dirty background for you.I'm 31 now and I've been a full-time freelance writer for over seven years. In just the last three years or so I've started commanding very good pricing (I make at lest $10,000 a month and I charge at least $10,000 per project for most of the big projects I do - I have some examples of that later in this post).I'm a high school dropout with no college education (although I DO have a Good Enough Diploma - GED).I've been traveling around the world the last two years, primarily throughout Southeast Asia. I live in Chiang Mai, Thailand right now.I first got published when I was 19 years old in Savannah, GA. I lied about my age (had a fake ID saying I was 21) and got a job as a bar/lifestyle reporter for a regional magazine around at the time called The South Magazine covering bars and restaurants and that sort of thing.Here's a 2006 scanned article with my name in print from that time (William McCanless): LINKOf course, they eventually found out that I was a 19 year old writing about drinking in their magazine and - for some strange reason - their lawyer thought I was a "liability" so they fired me. But I came away from it with three contributor copies and my name in print.Then I started doing music writing for a music magazine in Atlanta...stuff like this: LINKBut of course I wasn't getting paid much. Eventually I moved online and started using (at the time) sites like Elance (now Upwork), freelancer, and more.I was doing SEO, web content, batch blog writing.Eventually I started doing ghostwriting, which made me a little more money (and also crushed my soul as I was writing insane amounts of content every week...I would write 60,000 words in a week).Then, i started learning about Direct Response Copywriting. I started studying the Great Masters like David Ogilvy, Robert Collier, Claude Hopkins, and Gary Halbert. I learned, for example, that many of the great copywriters over the last 100 years could routinely make more money for a single sales page than a best-selling novelist makes for an entire year of book sales.I saw how people like Dan Kennedy don't even start negotiations until $30,000 is on the table for him to start writing a promotion.Eventually I got good and I started getting paid. And now I make at least $10,000 a month and charge at least $10,000 + 3% - 5% royalties on sales my promotions generate.Some examples of what different types of writing looks like based on payHere's a promotion that's not live yet, in fact this version is for the Legal Department to review (you must rigorously backup all claims and have this type of copy reviewed by a legal department). This is for a financial advisory (for natural resource investors). This advisory is SEC-regulated. You have to be REALLY careful with these because ad networks like Facebook, Yahoo, Bing, Google, Revcontent, tabloo, Outbrain, and more are very leery of financial copy (LOTS of scams) so it takes a lot of research to write one of these, lots of revisions - goes through Editorial, Legal, Ad compliance. This is an example of a $10,000 project with 5% royalties - LINKHere's another promotion, but rather than online, this is Direct Mail. This type of promotion is called a "Magalog" which is a combination of the words "Magazine" and "Catalog." One truth in Direct Response Marketing that was learned over the last 100 years of just...MILLIONS of various campaigns...that is that advertising that looks more like an editorial always does better. That's why - for example - Facebook has timeline ads (they look like a post). It's why Google Adwords has their ads look like actual search results. And, of course, it's why sending something that is perceived as a magazine is less likely to be rejected outright than a blatant "THIS IS AN ADVERTISEMENT" type of ad would. This is an example of a project that costs $10,000, but because it's to generate qualified leads and not immediate sales, there is no royalty other than a $5,000 bonus if it becomes a "control": LINKI don't JUST do $10,000 jobs and stuff like that. I would say I do about 6 promotions a year of these (one every two months).There's also many jobs I take on from online marketing clients who have online businesses for...$3,000 to $6,000 and they can be done very quickly because they don't require as much research or back-and-forth.For example a 45-minute VSL (video sales letter) script is something that I could pound out in about three days. So I will do one or two of those a month.Finally, the third type of project is just VERY small - absolutely no research required - things that I can pound out in literally a couple of hours in the afternoon.Here's an example of a script I wrote along those lines for $500: LINKHere's some of my favorite sales pages of all timeThis ad for Rolls-Royce by David OgilvyThis subscription direct-mail sales page for the Wall Street Journal, which is the most successful single piece of advertising in advertising history and brought in over nearly $3 BILLION in subscription sales for the nearly 30 years it ran (imagine being the copywriter who got 5% of THOSE sales, eh?)This sales letter for International Living written in the early 1970s by Bill Bonner, which launched a billion-dollar international publishing company called Agora (which is one of my clients). It returned $3 for every $1 in advertising costs.HERE'S A VIDEO I DID FOR THIS AMAWARNING NSFW: I cuss like a sailor, drink like a fish, and smoke like a chimney in this video. At least I'm a stereotype for writing...Video: https://youtu.be/P0Hdud6bd74Time Stamps:0:01 - 1:06Rambling introduction. I'm in Koh Phangan. I'm on vacation. It's Sangkron, Thai New Year. People throwing water on each other. Ridiculously transparent attempt to use Sangkron as an excuse to drink and smoke excessively on camera.1:07 - 5:17Why am I doing this AMA. No, it's not purely selfless - I was using previous AMAs to gauge audience response and see if people were hungry for a copywriting course. I was doing market research, essentially. r/writing had a bigger response than r/entrepreneur and r/marketing.I've been heavily considering teaching for some time and this was my attempt to see if anybody even wanted to learn what I had to teach.Got invited to a copywriting conference (big one) flaked out, was scared to teach, thought it was pointless. It bothered me - I felt like I had failed myself. A little bit about why I was scared. This is my attempt to get out of my comfortable seclusion and contribute.5:18 - 7:16Why would people in r/writing be interested in copywriting? Why I chose copywriting as a money-maker (versus novels, screenplays...etc).Quick background on me - ADHD (clinically), authority issues, bad around people, introvert, anti-social, writing for a living was really the only thing I could do.If I didn't make money writing - as a living - I'd be dead.7:21 - 9:47How and why I ended up in direct response copywriting after starting as an aspiring novelist and screenplay writer.9:48 - 11:04Does being a direct response copywriter make you a pathetic fucking sellout?11:05 - 17:25How and why doing Direct Response Copywriting for a living, helped me be a better, more disciplined writer in general (including the number one most important thing I learned about the writing process).Putting words down on paper - and writing FORWARD - no matter what, even if you don't feel like it.Crafting your writing with a "marketing mindset."17:28 - 23:53What the fuck is Direct Response Copywriting?23:54 - 29:10Is Direct Response Copywriting used to sell scam products (like penis pills and and get-rich-quick schemes).Some products you know that were marketed direct-response style (and written by copywriters). The George Foreman Grill, P90x, Nutribullet, real estate, car dealerships.29:11 - 33:43How can I charge so much money for this type of writing, and why are companies so willing to pay $10,000, $20,0000, $30,000 (or more) PLUS royalties on sales?33:45 - ENDConcluding thoughts on why I think direct response copywriting is a good option for people who love writing in general and who want to live a more location and time independent lifestyle.DISCLAIMER - At no point during this AMA, on any of my replies, nor any of the PMs I get will I reference you to an affiliate link, try to pitch a course that I've created, or essentially try to sell you anything unless I'm directly approached for it via PM - that's it.I'm only here to give the best answers, help, and advice I can for whoever wants it.For Those That Want Me To Show Bank StatementsI've been asked this before then when I refused there was an "ah-hah! Liar!" accusation. First of all, I don't feel comfortable sharing bank statements or account screen shots on the Internet. I'm scared there's going to be some telling information on there that gets me hacked or....identity stolen or something (by people who are a lot smarter than me).But here's my constellation. This is a recorded Skype call between me and a man named Joe Schrieffer who heads-up Agora Financial, in this 30 minute call I land a $10,000 job from him